Elections bring in thousands in funding

Money was spent campaigning for candidates and local measures. Political action committees spend big chunk.

November 15, 2010|By Britney Barnes, britney.barnes@latimes.com

Editor's note: This corrects the campaign contributions given to Huntington Beach Tomorrow and, subsequently, all totals.

More than $615,000 has been poured into Huntington Beach for the elections, with nearly $90,000 going into incumbent Joe Carchio's campaign, more than $67,000 spent to oppose Measure O and the Huntington Beach Firefighters Assn. dropping more than $100,000, public records show.

The eight Huntington Beach political action committees, or PACs, have spent nearly $300,000, the 21 council candidates have exhausted more than $288,000, and the two city attorney candidates have dropped more than $30,000 leading up to Tuesday's election, according to the latest public records.

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The candidates

Carchio, who pulled in the second most votes, led in money spent on his campaign, using nearly $64,000 from contributions and more than $22,000 spent on behalf of his campaign by the firefighters and police officers' association and Freedom From Taxes.

About $43,000 of the funds he spent on his campaign were donations from previous campaigns, his campaign treasurer has said.

Planning Commissioner Barbara Delgleize, who missed out on a seat by less than 400 votes, trailed in funds spent, exhausting nearly $38,000 on her campaign and having about $37,800 spent on her behalf.

Delgleize was supported by the Huntington Beach 2020 Vision PAC and the California Real Estate PAC.

Fellow Planning Commissioner Fred Speaker, who came in 10th in voting, came in next with money spent. Speaker fundraised and spent more than $29,000, and the police and fire associations and Freedom From Taxes combined dropped about $25,500 to support him.

Billy O'Connell's and Matthew Harper's campaigns totaled about $47,500, and Planning Commissioner Blair Farley came in next with more than $44,000 used on his campaign. Harper came in third, winning a council seat.

Joe Shaw's funds totaled about $39,000, Jim Katapodis nearly $32,000 and Connie Boardman, who led in votes, brought in more than $28,500.

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The political action committees

The firefighters association is leading in campaigning, having already spent almost $113,000. The association endorsed Carchio, Boardman, Speaker and Farley and City Atty. candidate Jennifer McGrath.

It spent about $19,270 endorsing Farley and about $10,000 on behalf of Boardman, Carchio, Speaker and McGrath. The association has also put up more than $30,500 to oppose Measure O and nearly $3,000 to support Measure P.